S/V Rainshadow

Thanksgiving day meant more this year, as this was the day that the wind cooperated so we could bring Rainshadow to her new home.

Full crew included: Van the captain, Marilyn the favorite mate, Damien the deckhand and Luke the college-student-home-for-the-holidays swabbie. Sid & Stephanie, Rainshadow’s former owners, came down to the docks for some last words of advice and a fond farewell to their well loved vessel.

We set out from Port Townsend where Rainshadow had been berthed by Sid & Stephanie for the last 20 some odd years. There was NO wind – a great oddity in comparison to the last several weeks of scary high winds. After motorsailing down Admiralty inlet to the south end of Marrowstone Island, finally a NNW wind picked up and we were able to sail her home. Hurrah!

We were under a full complement of sails, including a 130 Genoa, Main and Mizzen. We’d never sailed a mizzen before, so Captain Van spent some time adjusting its sheet to understand how to make Marilyn’s life at the helm easier. Squirrely winds didn’t help, and at times Rainshadow seemed to have a mind of her own. But we eventually got a fairly balanced helm and even enjoyed a time sailing downwind wing-on-wing with the mizzen tagging along behind.

As we approached her new home in Coon Bay at Driftwood Key, we dropped her sails and came into the bay under power. After a practice stop inside the bay, Marilyn approached the slip with Captain Van and Deckhand Damien ready with the docking lines, and Luke on deck with the just-in-case disaster fender in hand. All was going well with a nice slow approach, until Marilyn decided to give her a little reverse just before it was time for Van & Damien to step onto the dock. And now we all know what prop walk is – Rainshadow just took a step to starboard, but unfortunately the finger pier is to port. Ack! Van and Damien both took the flying leap to the dock, and tugged her back into position. We got her home!!

After figuring out how we could stuff a 38’ hull  plus an CQR anchor at the bow and mizzen boom aft into a 40’ MAX slip, we finally took a few farewell glances back at our lovely new boat and walked up the hill towards home and a Thanksgiving feast. We have so much to be thankful for this year.